By the time the meal was over, Rowan was sweating all over.
It wasn't that he was weak. It was just that Cosette had used top-grade beef, packed with calories and nutrients, and the richness hit him a little too hard.
So the first thing Rowan did after eating was extract chakra.
With that massive energy supply, the amount of chakra he extracted this time was about thirty percent greater than usual.
That was unquestionably a good thing.
While Rowan was extracting chakra, the others weren't idle either.
Nico Robin was extracting chakra as well.
Under Minato Namikaze's guidance, Kanae and Karin also learned the chakra extraction technique.
Both of them were from the Uzumaki clan and had naturally strong constitutions. If they did nothing but serve as blood bags without learning ninjutsu, it would be a complete waste.
So Minato, the Yellow Flash himself, personally taught them ninjutsu and helped them grow stronger.
That way, everyone had a bright future ahead.
The only one who felt out of place was Cosette. She didn't have the right constitution for the ninja world, so she couldn't extract chakra and could only focus on refining her cooking.
Fortunately, that was her actual profession. Not only did she not complain, she threw herself into it wholeheartedly.
In the blink of an eye, several more days passed.
Rowan could feel that his chakra had improved quite a bit, and even his Transformation Technique and Clone Technique were becoming more practiced. According to Minato, Rowan had now reached the level of a third-year Konoha Academy student.
He was getting closer and closer to becoming a qualified Konoha genin.
When Minato said that, he looked completely sincere. If Rowan didn't know what kind of person Minato was, he would've thought Minato was mocking him.
A third-year Academy student.
Yeah, hilarious.
Of course, during those three days, Rowan hadn't spent all his time extracting chakra. His physique was growing stronger by the day, but his cells still couldn't handle that kind of constant strain.
So most of the time, Rowan wandered around Loguetown, taking in the scenery and tasting the food.
And every time he did, Smoker would appear in front of him like a ghost, staring at him with open disdain, as if saying, Didn't I tell you this place doesn't welcome you? Why are you still here?
Rowan treated it like he didn't see him. He ate, drank, and strolled as he pleased.
Which left Smoker utterly helpless.
There was nothing he could do. In his mind, Rowan was frighteningly powerful. He didn't dare start a fight with him in Loguetown, and he didn't dare try to drive him out by force either.
Because he was afraid that if a fight really broke out, all of Loguetown would get dragged into it.
But today, Smoker was in a great mood, because Rowan was finally leaving.
As he watched Rowan's ship slowly set sail and leave Loguetown's harbor, he couldn't have been happier.
The jinx was finally gone. He felt like even the sky over Loguetown looked bluer than usual.
As for Rowan, the reason he was leaving Loguetown was twofold.
First, he had already spent the last few days thoroughly exploring the place. Big attractions, small attractions, good restaurants—he had already tried them all.
Second, Cosette had heard that there was a famous sea restaurant in the East Blue called Baratie.
So she wanted to visit it. Or more precisely, study it a little, in hopes of making even better food for Rowan.
That was why Rowan decided to leave Loguetown.
And so they set out once again for the sea restaurant Baratie.
Halfway there, Nico Robin's Transponder Snail suddenly rang.
The caller was Tsunade.
Before Tsunade and the others had left for the Grand Line, Robin had bought a pair of Transponder Snails and given one of them to Tsunade so they could stay in contact at any time.
This time, Tsunade was calling with good news.
"It worked. Our plan worked." Tsunade was clearly excited, and the Transponder Snail mimicked her thrilled expression perfectly.
"You got the Door-Door Fruit?" Rowan was a little surprised. It had only been a few days, and they had already succeeded?
Tsunade shook her head. "Not the Door-Door Fruit. The Slow-Slow Fruit."
The Slow-Slow Fruit?
Rowan thought for a moment, then remembered. Wasn't that the fruit eaten by Foxy, captain of the Foxy Pirates, the Silver Fox?
He remembered that the guy looked ridiculous—split bangs, a red nose, inverted eyebrows, triangular eyes, basically a fox-faced freak.
His favorite thing to do was challenge other pirate crews to Davy Back Fights.
It was an old game said to have originated on some pirate island long ago, where pirates competed to steal the best crew members from each other—basically a giant crew-snatching contest.
The contest was best two out of three, and the losers had to swear to the legendary pirate Davy Jones that they would serve the winners for life.
On Long Ring Long Land, Luffy took part in that game against Foxy to protect his crewmates, and in the end he won.
Another interesting detail was that Foxy wasn't the only one who liked using this game. Decades earlier, the overlord of the seas, Rocks, had also used Davy Back Fights to steal crew members.
There was a good chance that Whitebeard, Golden Lion Shiki, and Big Mom Charlotte Linlin had all originally been won by Rocks that way.
…Right, got sidetracked.
Rowan smacked his forehead and pulled his thoughts back in line.
He remembered that the Slow-Slow Fruit let its user fire Noro photons as light waves. Anything hit by them—whether a living being or an object—would have its speed drastically reduced for thirty seconds. The photons could be reflected by mirrors, and they had no effect on luminous objects.
On top of that, activating the ability required a specific hand gesture. If the user's fingers were restrained, they couldn't use it.
Despite all those flaws, it was undeniably still a powerful Devil Fruit.
That slowing effect alone was enough to give someone an overwhelming advantage in battle.
And the Noro photons could even be stored.
For speed-based fighters like Minato and Tobirama, it was practically a perfect fruit.
They were already absurdly fast to begin with. If they could also slow down their enemies, it would be total domination.
One-on-one or one-against-many, they would hold every advantage and could kill opponents effortlessly.
And the fact that Tsunade and the others had managed to take the Slow-Slow Fruit from Foxy meant their plan was workable.
First, trap the ability user inside the Four Red Yang Formation.
Then kill the user.
Then place a large quantity of fruit inside the barrier so that the Devil Fruit had no choice but to reincarnate into one of the fruits inside it.
No wonder Tsunade sounded so excited on the other end of the Transponder Snail.
If they could use that method to seize the Slow-Slow Fruit, then they could use it to seize the Door-Door Fruit too.
And other fruits as well.
Even so, Rowan said, "I'd suggest you try it a few more times first. Just to make sure this wasn't a one-time fluke."
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "You don't need to tell us that. We already know we need more tests."
"But I'm confident that even if we do it a few more times, we'll still succeed."
~~~
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